I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that comes after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit, and with fire:
Read Chapter 3
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
My baptism is only calculated to lead you to a penitential life, and not to give you true justice; but he who comes after me, is stronger than I, and whose shoes I am not worthy to carry: (it was customary with the attendant slave to carry a change of shoes for his master) he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit, and in the fire of his divine charity, which he will infuse into your hearts, to purify you from all your sins. (Bible de Vence)
Here St. John tacitly insinuates the divinity of Jesus Christ. He acknowledges his unworthiness, and it is this his humility that makes him the more acceptable to God, "I ought to be baptized by thee, and comest thou to me? "(Tirinus)
Whose shoes I am not worthy to carry. In St. Mark, (chap. i. 7.) and in St. Luke, (iii. 21.) we read, the latchet of whose shoes . I am not worthy to untie. The sense is the same, and St. John might use both these expressions. His meaning is, that he was not worthy to do him the least, or the lowest service.
He shall ...
Do you see how great is the wisdom of the Baptist? How, when He Himself is preaching, He says everything to alarm, and fill them with anxiety; but when He is sending men to Him, whatever was mild and apt to recover them: not bringing forward the axe, nor the tree that is cut down and burnt, and cast into the fire, nor the wrath to come, but remission of sins, and removing of punishment, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, and adoption, and brotherhood, and a partaking of the inheritance, and an abundant supply of the Holy Ghost. For all these things he obscurely denoted, when he said, He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost; at once, by the very figure of speech, declaring the abundance of the grace (for he said not, He will give you the Holy Ghost, but He will baptize you with the Holy Ghost); and by the specification of fire on the other hand indicating the vehement and uncontrollable quality of His grace.
Imagine only what sort of men it was meet for the heare...
He had told them to bring forth fruit; now he shows them what fruit to bring forth: to believe in Him that is coming after John. After him came Christ. For just as Christ came after John in birth, by only six months, so it was also in His public manifestation. First the Forerunner was made manifest, and then came Christ, after the testimony of the Forerunner.
am not even the least of His servants, he says, who carries His sandals. By "sandals" understand the Lord’s two descents, the one from heaven to earth, and the other from earth to hades. For the sandals, being leather, represent flesh and mortification. The Forerunner, then, is not able to carry these two descents, that is, not able to understand how they occurred.
That is, He shall flood you with the gifts and the grace of the Holy Spirit. For my baptism, John says, provides neither spiritual grace nor forgiveness of sins, but He will forgive you and give you the Spirit in abundance.
